Tunkhannock reports $1.4M deficit

LONG POND — Tunkhannock Township has accumulated a $1.4 million operating-fund deficit over the past five years, according to supervisors at their annual budget meeting Wednesday night.

HOWARD FRANK

LONG POND — Tunkhannock Township has accumulated a $1.4 million operating-fund deficit over the past five years, according to supervisors at their annual budget meeting Wednesday night.

"The township is in dire straits because of accounting errors from last year," Tunkhannock Secretary and Treasurer Maria Wieand said. Wieand was appointed in early 2008.

But last year's errors account for only $380,000 of the deficit. The deficit spending began in 2004, supervisors said.

Supervisors reported that the township had overspent by about $1 million during the period of 2004 to 2007.

"The audits caught it. It was the supervisors' and staff's responsibility to monitor that and follow the budgets," Supervisor Maureen Sterner said.

Sterner was elected in 2007 and joined the board in 2008, after the overspending occurred.

The additional $380,000 was wrongly added as revenue in the township's 2008 budget. The amount, thought to be a surplus from 2007, did not exist. The error was blamed on the township's former acting treasurer.

In a township with only a $2 million budget, finding $1.4 million to make good on the deficit won't be easy or painless. The deficits have been made up by tax increases and allocations from the capital reserve fund, according to Sterner. Local programs will take a hit.

"We are cutting off the fire company's three-quarter of a mill funding and taking away millage from the library," Wieand said.

The supervisors have made operational changes as well.

"We've instituted a lot of new accounting policies, such as purchase orders, eliminated unnecessary overtime and expenses. Our actual expenses on Nov. 21, 2008, we had a savings of $431,840 in a year-to-date comparison to 2007 expenses," Sterner said.

Sterner said some savings are easy to identify. "When one employee makes about $30,000 in overtime in one year, it's not hard to find that kind of savings. There were others that were excessive, but not to that extent," she said.

According to Sterner, former township roadmaster and emergency services coordinator Bruce Walder was the employee who received the most excessive overtime. Walder left the township's employ this year.

Sterner said the overtime was not a surprise to supervisors. The overtime had been brought up numerous times between 2004 and 2007, she said.

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